diff --git a/hugolib/page__per_output.go b/hugolib/page__per_output.go
index e8dc69507..60e3a7f59 100644
--- a/hugolib/page__per_output.go
+++ b/hugolib/page__per_output.go
@@ -33,10 +33,10 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/cast"
 
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/converter/hooks"
+	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/highlight/chromalexers"
 
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/converter"
 
-	"github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2/lexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/lazy"
 
 	bp "github.com/gohugoio/hugo/bufferpool"
@@ -545,7 +545,7 @@ func (p *pageContentOutput) initRenderHooks() error {
 				layoutDescriptor.Kind = "render-codeblock"
 				if id != nil {
 					lang := id.(string)
-					lexer := lexers.Get(lang)
+					lexer := chromalexers.Get(lang)
 					if lexer != nil {
 						layoutDescriptor.KindVariants = strings.Join(lexer.Config().Aliases, ",")
 					} else {
diff --git a/markup/goldmark/codeblocks/render.go b/markup/goldmark/codeblocks/render.go
index 3daad0af6..739781de1 100644
--- a/markup/goldmark/codeblocks/render.go
+++ b/markup/goldmark/codeblocks/render.go
@@ -19,11 +19,11 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 
-	"github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2/lexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/herrors"
 	htext "github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/text"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/converter/hooks"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/goldmark/internal/render"
+	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/highlight/chromalexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/internal/attributes"
 	"github.com/yuin/goldmark"
 	"github.com/yuin/goldmark/ast"
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ func (r *htmlRenderer) renderCodeBlock(w util.BufWriter, src []byte, node ast.No
 	}
 
 	attrtp := attributes.AttributesOwnerCodeBlockCustom
-	if isd, ok := renderer.(hooks.IsDefaultCodeBlockRendererProvider); (ok && isd.IsDefaultCodeBlockRenderer()) || lexers.Get(lang) != nil {
+	if isd, ok := renderer.(hooks.IsDefaultCodeBlockRendererProvider); (ok && isd.IsDefaultCodeBlockRenderer()) || chromalexers.Get(lang) != nil {
 		// We say that this is a Chroma code block if it's the default code block renderer
 		// or if the language is supported by Chroma.
 		attrtp = attributes.AttributesOwnerCodeBlockChroma
diff --git a/markup/highlight/chromalexers/chromalexers.go b/markup/highlight/chromalexers/chromalexers.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41fd76261
--- /dev/null
+++ b/markup/highlight/chromalexers/chromalexers.go
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+// Copyright 2022 The Hugo Authors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package chromalexers
+
+import (
+	"sync"
+
+	"github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2"
+	"github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2/lexers"
+)
+
+type lexersMap struct {
+	lexers map[string]chroma.Lexer
+	mu     sync.RWMutex
+}
+
+var lexerCache = &lexersMap{lexers: make(map[string]chroma.Lexer)}
+
+// Get returns a lexer for the given language name, nil if not found.
+// This is just a wrapper around chromalexers.Get that caches the result.
+// Reasoning for this is that chromalexers.Get is slow in the case where the lexer is not found,
+// which is a common case in Hugo.
+func Get(name string) chroma.Lexer {
+	lexerCache.mu.RLock()
+	lexer, found := lexerCache.lexers[name]
+	lexerCache.mu.RUnlock()
+
+	if found {
+		return lexer
+	}
+
+	lexer = lexers.Get(name)
+
+	lexerCache.mu.Lock()
+	lexerCache.lexers[name] = lexer
+	lexerCache.mu.Unlock()
+
+	return lexer
+}
diff --git a/markup/highlight/highlight.go b/markup/highlight/highlight.go
index 5b19d6e8e..010c941f7 100644
--- a/markup/highlight/highlight.go
+++ b/markup/highlight/highlight.go
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/common/text"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/identity"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/converter/hooks"
+	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/highlight/chromalexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/internal/attributes"
 )
 
@@ -167,7 +168,7 @@ func (h HightlightResult) Inner() template.HTML {
 func highlight(fw hugio.FlexiWriter, code, lang string, attributes []attributes.Attribute, cfg Config) (int, int, error) {
 	var lexer chroma.Lexer
 	if lang != "" {
-		lexer = lexers.Get(lang)
+		lexer = chromalexers.Get(lang)
 	}
 
 	if lexer == nil && (cfg.GuessSyntax && !cfg.NoHl) {
diff --git a/tpl/transform/transform.go b/tpl/transform/transform.go
index 36508c428..039d674c4 100644
--- a/tpl/transform/transform.go
+++ b/tpl/transform/transform.go
@@ -18,10 +18,10 @@ import (
 	"html"
 	"html/template"
 
-	"github.com/alecthomas/chroma/v2/lexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/cache/namedmemcache"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/converter/hooks"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/highlight"
+	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/markup/highlight/chromalexers"
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/tpl"
 
 	"github.com/gohugoio/hugo/deps"
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ func (ns *Namespace) HighlightCodeBlock(ctx hooks.CodeblockContext, opts ...any)
 
 // CanHighlight returns whether the given code language is supported by the Chroma highlighter.
 func (ns *Namespace) CanHighlight(language string) bool {
-	return lexers.Get(language) != nil
+	return chromalexers.Get(language) != nil
 }
 
 // HTMLEscape returns a copy of s with reserved HTML characters escaped.